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Home , Cherokee (Unicode block), Green Corn Ceremony, Muscogee, Stomp dance, Trail of Tears

Iti Fabussa

Question: vate in nature and not intended for publication. The following respect- To the folks at Iti Fabvssa: fully excludes these details and draws mostly from published sources. I was wondering when the last Luak Falaya / Green Corn Ceremo- The best written description of a Green Corn Ceremony ny was held in the Choctaw Nation and if there is or has been a move- comes from an account by Lucy Cherry, a Choctaw born in Skully- ment to reinvigorate this ceremony among our people. ville, OK, in 1869 (Cherry 1937:382-385). Her words portray a Green Sincerely, Corn Ceremony held at Cavanal in the Sugar Loaf Mountians, prob- Brandon ably in the late 1800s: Preparations began a week before the event, with men hunting deer, Answer: squirrels, and bear, and killing hogs and cattle; green corn was also Dear Brandon, harvested from the fields. The families gathered up the food they had Over the last few months, Iti Fabvssa has received several inquiries obtained, along with many of the household furnishings and headed about the Choctaw Green Corn Ceremony. In an attempt to effectively for the Dance Grounds. respond to these, we’re going to give you the long answer to your The Green Corn Ceremony lasted four days. The first day was filled question: with setting up camp and re-establishing connections with old friends The “Green Corn Ceremony” is the most important social and spiri- who had come for the occasion. Food was cooked and eaten in com- tual event in the traditional seasonal round of the Choctaw and other mon. On the second day, everyone fasted, while the Choctaw doctor, Tribes that are Indigenous to what is now the Southeastern United Alikchi, administered herbal drinks to participants that purged their States. Held at the ripening of the corn crop in late July, it was and is bodies. Afterwards, males and females were bathed separately in a a time of community-building, rekindling friendships, reconciliation, purifying herbal solution. That night, participants went to sleep with- purification, restoring balance, making new beginnings, and giving out eating. Sometime during the third day they broke their fast with praise and to God. a feast. That evening, the main part of the was held. It appears that in the , Okissa, or “fast,” was Its beginning was announced by a beating drum. A man took a place probably the term most widely used in the past to refer to the “Green on the dance ground near a central fire and prayed in the Choctaw Corn Ceremony” (see Byington 1915:296), although Tanchushi Hilha language, thanking God for the blessings that the community had re- “young corn dance” (Wright 1937:378) may have been used to de- ceived. Then, the dance began, around the fire. A male caller led the scribe the accompanying dances. vocal portion of the dance, and was echoed by the other male dancers. The specific elements of the Green Corn Ceremony varied- be Females danced with a skillful double step, keeping the rhythm using tween Choctaw communities, but they share basic parts that date back turtle shell rattles fastened to their lower legs (according to Cherry the unknown centuries in what is now the Southeastern . men also had the shells fastened to their upper legs). The dance lasted Even as early as the mid , James Adair noted that the Green until sunrise. The fourth day of the Green Corn Ceremony was spent Corn Ceremony was no longer being practiced in the Choctaw com- in visiting friends and relatives and in breaking camp. munities that he observed (1775:325). This was likely because of the In the traditional Choctaw way of thinking, every part of the Green population loss and stress these communities were facing at that time Corn Ceremony has spiritual significance. As mentioned by Cherry, as a result of being pulled into an ongoing military conflict between the dances for the Green Corn Ceremony, as well as some others the French and English (Pesantubbee 2005:126-127). Still, the Green held during different parts of the year are traditionally conducted on Corn Ceremony survived among some Choctaw communities, and in a Dance Ground. A Dance Ground is a special area prepared by an the , it was carried from , over the and Alikchi who beseeches God to bless it. A new Dance Ground can only re-established in . be started with the assistance of the staff from a previously established The Choctaw Green Corn Ceremony has received much less writ- Dance Ground. ten attention than the equivalent ceremonies of other Southeastern At the center of the Dance Ground is a fire, considered sacred by Tribes, like the (Creeks). This is because Choctaw practi- practitioners. Some early apparently called it Luak Hash- tioners made a concerted effort to protect it from outside observation tahli Itichapa, or “Fire, the friend of God” (Wright 1828: 179-180). and interference, sometimes stopping the entire proceedings if they Around the central fire is the dance area, usually cleared free of brush felt threatened by an observer (Bushnell 1909:22). Today, just as in the and debris by fasting individuals before or during the early part of past, some of the parts of the Choctaw Green Corn Ceremony are pri- the Green Corn Ceremony. Outside of the dance area, are four brush arbors, set in four cardinal directions, to form a square. Each of these of this has given rise to the Choctaw Social Dances seen today during is assigned to representatives of one of the Tribes of the Four Mothers the Labor Day Festival and other Tribal events. Society (see below). Camp houses may be located beyond the arbors Today, like the traditional dances, the Choctaw Green Corn Cere- for family to prepare food. mony continues to exist. In 2007, after a 70-year hiatus, a new Choc- At the Green Corn Ceremony, dances are usually done in parts taw Dance Ground was opened on the Tuskahuma Council House of four, and proceed counter-clockwise around the fire. Through the Grounds. Choctaw people and members of other Tribes regularly night, new callers arise to lead dances until the sun comes up. Two meet there for Stomp Dances, feasts, and other traditional gatherings. early commentators / participants stated that the dances used by the Choctaw were basically the same as those of the , Creek, Adair, James and (Cherry 1937:382; Wright 1937:377). One writer has 1775 The History of the American Indians; Particularly succinctly drawn together how practitioners view all of the above: Those Nations Adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West , “Southeastern People believe that the Stomp Dance grounds is anal- , South and North ogous to a church, the songs being prayers, and that those prayers Carolina, and Virginia. Printed for Edward and Charles travel with the smoke up to the Creator” (Sharp 2007:3). Dilly. London. In the past, it appears that at least some Choctaw communities made their laws during the Green Corn Ceremony, and that leaders Bushnell, David Jr. preached to their people about appropriate moral conduct (Swanton 1909 The Choctaw Indians of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tam- 2001:225-226). Many of the Tribes that host equivalents of the Green many Parish, . Corn Ceremony extinguish all of the fires in camp during the event. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Eth- After rekindling the fire at the center of the Dance Ground,- prac nology, Bulletin 48. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. titioners use its coals to re-light all of the other fires, focusing on forgiveness and renewal. That the same practice was followed by at Cherry, Lucy least some Choctaw communities in the past may be evidenced in 1937 Interview published in Indian-Pioneer Papers. University of Hashi Luak Musholi, the name of a summer month in the Tradition- Oklahoma History Collections. Vol. 19:382-385. al Choctaw calendar, which means “fires extinguished” (Byington Howard, James and Lindsay Levine 1915:146-147). 1990 Choctaw Music and Dance. University of Okla- In the late 1800s, at the same time Cherry was participating in the homa Press, Norman. Green Corn Ceremony described above, traditional Choctaw people were facing increasingly forceful pressure to assimilate into sur- Levine. Lindsay rounding Euro-American society. Seeking support, some Choctaw 1993 Music Revitalization among the Choctaw. Ameri- traditionalists joined with their counterparts in the Cherokee, Creek/ can Music 11(4):391-411 , and Chickasaw Tribes to organize the Four Mothers So- ciety. The purpose of the society was to hold onto traditional Tribal Pesantubbee, Michelene lifeways and values, expressed in part through the Green Corn Cer- 2005 Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: The Clash emony. At roughly the same time, Choctaw communities residing in of Cultures in the Colonial Southeast. University of Mississippi and Louisiana were also holding onto their traditional Press, Albuquerque. dances and Dance Grounds. However, by the early 1900s, the Choc- taw Green Corn Ceremony largely fades from written reference, with Sarah Sharp one exception. 2007 Stomp Dance. Unpublished paper on file with the This community was made up of a group of Choctaws who left Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Department Meridian, MS on December 14, 1902. They were lead by James, Ar- nold, a resident of Ardmore, who, through deception, intended to sell Swanton, John R. them as slaves once they reached Oklahoma. That winter, 10 of these 2001 Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Choctaw people died as a result of mistreatment. An ensuing investi- Life of the Choctaw Indians. Reprint. University of Press, gation by the Department of the Interior freed the survivors and saw Tuscaloosa. them given land allotments near Ardmore (Levine 1993:393-394). Wright, Alfred This community opened the Yellow Hills Dance Ground, which re- 1828 Choctaws: Religious Opinions, Traditions, Etc. Missionary mained active until 1937. Herald 24:178-183, 214-216. In 1951, Murial Wright, herself a Choctaw, wrote, “Choctaw tribal dances are no longer held in Oklahoma” (Wright 1951:118). How- Wright, Islin ever, beginning in the 1970s, elders who had participated at Yellow 1937 Interview published in Indian-Pioneer Papers. Hills Dance Ground formed the Choctaw-Chickasaw Heritage Com- University of Oklahoma Western History Collections. Vol. 19:377- mittee and revitalized many of the old dance styles that they had en- 382. joyed as youths. At roughly the same time, similar initiatives to re- vitalize Choctaw traditional dances were underway near Idabel, OK, Wright, Murial and Philadelphia, MS (Howard and Levine 1990:15). Through this, 1951 Guide to Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. University traditional Choctaw dances were taken out their original contexts of of Oklahoma Press, Norman. the Green Corn Ceremony, or the stickball game, or the celebration at the return of a war party, and transformed into social dances that publicly express Choctaw identity in an ethnically mixed society. All © BISHINIK, March 2010